Cadillac unveil livery for Formula 1 debut season during Super Bowl
In Bottas and Perez, new American team has two of the more experienced drivers on the grid
Dubai: One has won 10 Formula 1 races and finished second in the Drivers’ Championship twice, while the other has six race wins under his belt along with one second-place finish in the Drivers’ Championship. And together, they form a formidable force for the new Cadillac team which unveiled its livery for its debut season in Formula 1, with the design revealed during a television advert at the Super Bowl championship game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.
Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas, who finished second behind his legendary Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton twice, in 2019 and 2020, and Mexican driver Sergio Perez, who kept his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen honest in the 2023 season while finishing second, are holders of long-standing records in Formula 1. The Finn holds the record for the most career points without a World Drivers’ Championship (1,797), having also achieved 20 pole positions, 19 fastest laps and 67 podiums.
Perez’s record is the more unwanted of the two, the Mexican owning records for the most starts before a race win (190) and the most races before a pole position (219). Besides his six wins, Perez also has three pole positions, 12 fastest laps and 39 podiums in Formula 1.
Now 36, both Bottas and Perez have put their new challenger through its initial paces during the Barcelona Shakedown, where the car sported a special livery featuring the names of the founding members of the team from both the United States and the UK.
At the close of the event, Bottas hailed the squad’s running as “really valuable” and spoke of his pride over how everyone in the team was “working so hard”.
“We still have lots of problems to solve, and a bit of a mountain to climb, but we are getting there step by step,” the Finn said. “Each run we’re getting better and more together as a team. Each run we are solving issues and going forward, so that’s good.”
Exploring the car
Perez also reflected positively on what the outfit had learned at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“We got a lot of running, a lot of information,” the Mexican said. “Still finding a few issues out there, which is great — it was all about that today. I think we are improving pretty much every run.
“We’re obviously starting to explore the car, the set-up, directions we want to be taking, so I think it’s starting well.”
Cadillac’s driver line-up for their first season also features Zhou Guanyu as a reserve driver, while former IndyCar star Colton Herta will hold a testing role.
Team Principal Graeme Lowdon leads the squad as they prepare for their maiden campaign, with the outfit set to join their competitors for pre-season testing in Bahrain on February 11-13 and February 18-20.
